Double header with Cooke to define season for City of Derry

Cooke vs. City of Derry   |   Saturday, 2:30pm

It has been a hard slog of late, but victory over Cooke this week and next could still rescue a season that has been in danger of falling into disrepair for City of Derry.

Richard McCarter’s side are still without a league win in 2024, with an injury nightmare coursing through the club and denying the Firsts any chance of matching their fine efforts from the first half of the season.

Having matched them for so long at the top of Ulster Championship One, Enniskillen and Ballyclare are now out of sight in first and second due to the recent run of losses, but the silver lining is that Derry are still in third, with the chance to secure a top four finish – an aim at the start of the season – this weekend.

Following that there is a Junior Cup semi-final, and a chance of a final and even silverware, giving McCarter and bis players more than enough incentive.

“It’s really gone on a downward spiral since the turn of the year,” he acknowledged. “Everything had been looking really positive in the three competitions that we were in, but just a combination of loads and loads of injuries and unavailability has resulted in a poor run of results.

“We’re fully aware of that, but at the end of the day, the positive thing is that these next couple of weeks for us are huge and we can still achieve what we set out to achieve at the start of the year, and that’s top four in the league and getting to a cup final. A doom and gloom as it sounds, the reality is that the next couple of weeks can turn things around for us.”

City of Derry lost at Grosvenor last week, but gained a bonus point which keeps them ahead of this week’s opponents in fourth. As important as a league win will be this weekend, McCarter knows what value a cup final would have to everyone at the club. It’s about finding the balance in very difficult circumstances.

“A win this week would put us at least five points clear of them with two games to go; it wouldn’t guarantee us third spot, but it would more or less guarantee us top four,” he stated.

“It’s a big game for us, but we have a lot of selection issues at the moment, and it’s no secret in saying that, so we just have to try and do our best over the next few weeks, and make sure at the end of the season that we’re not looking back with regret.”

“I think the reality is that the cup semi-final is more important. At the end of the day, the chance to get to a cup final and the chance to win silverware over finishing third or fourth in the league which you get nothing to show for; the cup final is definitely a priority, but having said that it was a goal of ours to finish in the top four this season and try and go better than last year when we finished fifth. The fact that we’ve been sitting in third spot pretty much from star to finish this year, it would be a real shame if we didn’t consolidate that.”

Confidence

No matter the opponent this weekend, the Derry players could be doing with the boost of a victory heading into next week’s semi-final, with confidence a low ebb due to injury problems which have brought a run of just two wins from seven games since Christmas in all competitions.

Derry are still searching for their first league win in 2024.

“We had a great win against Ballymoney a couple of weeks ago in the quarterfinal, and we thought we had turned the corner a bit, but we picked up another of injuries in that game, and we had a couple more last Saturday, which really impacted the set-piece in the second half against Grosvenor and contributed to not a great second half,” McCarter continued.

“It’s just about trying to get a squad together for this Saturday, and really just throwing everything at it. It’s important to win in terms of our motivation and confidence and trying to get a bit of momentum again. It’s been a real struggle this side of the New Year.”